The Canadian Forces has a reputation for toughness, expertise in emergencies and successful leadership through threatening and stressful situations.
Maybe it’s not that rough in the boardroom, but business brings its own kind of battles and future leaders need to learn these skills as they prepare for their careers.
Related to this story
That’s why Ivey’s Ian O. Ihnatowycz Institute for Leadership turned to the Canadian Forces to teach teaming abilities, leadership character and commitment to HBA students.
The Institute launched a new course, Leadership Under Fire: Developing Character, that ran in August 2013 and is modelled after the Basic Officer Training Course that Canadian Forces officers take. Except, instead of military tactics, Ivey students learned task-oriented problem-solving in stressful and uncertain contexts and were put through a series of challenges geared to build strengths in both leading and following roles.
Most of the course was held at the Canadian Forces Base in Borden, Ontario, and was taught by military veterans with teaching experience in the Canadian Army. It also included a reception where students interacted with young military veterans from the war in Afghanistan.
“We can talk about leadership and character in the classroom, but, unless you let people go through an experience, they won’t feel anything. They won’t sense anything about what character really means. You need to stretch them a little bit,” said Ivey Professor Gerard Seijts, the Institute’s Executive Director and lead instructor of the course.
Seijts said Ivey Executive Education participants were put through a similar exercise two years ago with tremendous success. In 2010, 30 participants tested their physical and mental endurance in simulation exercises put together by Seijts and the London Fire Services. Many of the participants later described the experience as perspective-changing.
“People have to experience it. People have to go through it. They may even need to make errors. We want them to reflect on what they did or didn’t do. To actually commit to things and then reflect,” he said. “We want to make things come alive. To make people feel it, sense it, smell it and touch it. To make it real.”
Seijts said the course created a buzz with students. Although the course is capped at 40 students, within an hour of registration opening, 90 students had tried to register.
